Hi everyone,
I want to share a mockup for a new touchpad gesture designed specifically for Wayland sessions. The idea is to allow users to adjust the system volume using a 3-finger vertical swipe.
Volume control is one of the most frequently used system adjustments, and a direct touchpad gesture feels highly natural for this action.
The Interaction:
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3-Finger Swipe Up: Increase system volume.
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3-Finger Swipe Down: Decrease system volume.
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An on-screen display (OSD) would reflect the changes in real-time.
Addressing the Current Gestures: I am aware that GNOME currently maps the 3-finger vertical swipe to opening the Activities Overview and the App Grid. I want to respect the existing workflow, so I am bringing this here to discuss how we might integrate this without breaking core navigation.
A few potential paths for discussion:
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Shift Activities to 4-Fingers: Move the Activities Overview gesture to a 4-finger vertical swipe to free up 3 fingers for media controls.
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User Choice: Introduce a toggle in Settings > Mouse & Touchpad allowing users to customize the 3-finger vertical swipe behavior (e.g., choosing between “Workspace Navigation” and “Media Controls”).
I would appreciate the Design team’s and the community’s thoughts on this. Is this a direction worth exploring for core GNOME, or would this concept be better developed as a third-party extension?
Thank you for your time.
Note: Used AI to English correction
